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RustyHill · 06-20-2025, 08:02 AM

OK, so this turned out to be the (stupidly long) book name problem. The full book name, excluding extension, is 154 Char$ long. Calibre and plugins fail on this length of name. (see the debug logs)

The problem was also (probably) not helped by my using the default Temp/tmp dir, which also defaults to a long path and so might well cause problems when matched with a very long book file name.

So, of course I then changed two things at once!

First off launch Calibre from a batch file which also sets it's own (short) path variable. In my case like this:

::
:: 2025/06/20
::
SET TEMP=D:\TMP
SET TMP=D:\TMP
SET CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR=D:\TMP
START CALIBRE.EXE

So these are not persistent and only affect the current Calibre session.

I then copied *all* the files related to the book of interest from my KPW to d:\tmp

It's essential to keep the same dir structure, so in my case that was found in:

This PC\Kindle Paperwhite\Internal Storage\documents\Downloads\Items01

Copy the actual book file..

Gobbelino London & a Worry of Weres_ Cats, snark, & canine problems - a complete funny, cozy urban fantasy series (Gobbelino London, PI Book 5)_B09WYV7QFN.kfx

Then under that dir you'll find a sub dir you'll find a dir with the same name but ending in .sdr. Copy this to the same d:\tmp dir as before. In my case it had 10 items in it - 8 files and 2 further dirs. (assets & data) Both these dirs also had sub dirs... make sure they have copied too. (assets holds attachables sub dir data holds .pagination.cache sub dir)

So in my case that's 12 files & associated sub dirs.

Then import the top level book file into Calibre's library from the HD. Calibre and the plugins will then also use the remaining files to allow DeDRM and then conversion to Epub.

So that's two methods which still work with 'new' Kindle books, esp. those with far too long file names - K4PC 2.4.0 (70904) and this manual copying.

All so I have a backup just in case! Phew.

06-20-2025, 08:02 AM	#1017
RustyHill Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2023 Device: Kindle	OK, so this turned out to be the (stupidly long) book name problem. The full book name, excluding extension, is 154 Char$ long. Calibre and plugins fail on this length of name. (see the debug logs) The problem was also (probably) not helped by my using the default Temp/tmp dir, which also defaults to a long path and so might well cause problems when matched with a very long book file name. So, of course I then changed two things at once! First off launch Calibre from a batch file which also sets it's own (short) path variable. In my case like this: :: :: 2025/06/20 :: SET TEMP=D:\TMP SET TMP=D:\TMP SET CALIBRE_TEMP_DIR=D:\TMP START CALIBRE.EXE So these are not persistent and only affect the current Calibre session. I then copied all the files related to the book of interest from my KPW to d:\tmp It's essential to keep the same dir structure, so in my case that was found in: This PC\Kindle Paperwhite\Internal Storage\documents\Downloads\Items01 Copy the actual book file.. *Gobbelino London & a Worry of Weres_ Cats, snark, & canine problems - a complete funny, cozy urban fantasy series (Gobbelino London, PI Book 5)_B09WYV7QFN.kfx* Then under that dir you'll find a sub dir you'll find a dir with the same name but ending in .sdr. Copy this to the same d:\tmp dir as before. In my case it had 10 items in it - 8 files and 2 further dirs. (assets & *data) Both these dirs also had sub dirs... make sure they have copied too. (assets holds attachables* sub dir data holds .pagination.cache sub dir) So in my case that's 12 files & associated sub dirs. Then import the top level book file into Calibre's library from the HD. Calibre and the plugins will then also use the remaining files to allow DeDRM and then conversion to Epub. So that's two methods which still work with 'new' Kindle books, esp. those with far too long file names - K4PC 2.4.0 (70904) and this manual copying. All so I have a backup just in case! Phew.